Approaching journals is an important step in the RIAT process. Restoring a trial is a major undertaking and it is important to be assured, prior to getting deep into analysis, that the trial manuscript you author is something a journal is willing to consider for potential publication. Historically, clinical trials manuscripts have only been submitted by the original study investigators and sponsors. Journal editors unfamiliar with the RIAT initiative may therefore be hesitant to even consider a RIAT manuscript for potential publication.
For this reason, the RIAT Support Center maintains a list of “RIAT-friendly journals” that have expressed a willingness to consider RIAT manuscripts for possible publication.
If you have in mind to publish in a listed RIAT-friendly journal, contact them with a pre-submission inquiry at the point in time in which you have collected data necessary to RIAT, have documentation of trial non-publication or misreporting, have issued a call to action, and can show the trial has been abandoned by the original investigators/sponsors. (See the “How to RIAT” steps.)
If your target journal for publishing your RIAT manuscript is not a RIAT-friendly journal yet, you may have to convince them both of the RIAT concept and also of the appropriateness of your particular trial being published in their journal. Start with an email to the editor. To save time you can insert links to the relevant pages of this website, for example the “What is RIAT?” page if you want to give the editor background knowledge of RIAT. You could also try to convince the editor to publicly declare their journal’s support for RIAT (here’s all that’s involved). Then the journal will be listed by us on the relevant web page. Few editors turn down the chance of receiving more interesting and thought-provoking submissions, so be sure to make the point that taking such steps will enlarge the readership and appeal of the journal. Make sure to point out to the editor that restoration is likely to enhance the integrity and reputation of a journal, not diminish it.
If you are approaching a particular journal because that journal has published a misreported and abandoned trial, the content of your email will vary with circumstances. However we can offer one piece of universal advice: whatever the circumstances you should avoid putting the editor on the defensive. Editors usually do not have the in-depth knowledge of the details of a trial that you might have and seldom have the time to acquire it. Editors usually strive to maintain the integrity of their journals and distortions are not normally published with an intent to deceive or blandish the readership.
Some editors might insist on registration of a previously unregistered trial prior to consideration of a RIAT manuscript. However at this point we do not think this is possible, as submission to trial registers like ClinicalTrials.gov can only be made by authorized parties (generally, investigators or sponsors). For example, Rujun Zhang and Navindra Persaud attempted to register the “8-way” Bendectin Study but were unable. The RIAT Support Center sees lack of registration as another form of trial abandonment and is continuing to look into ways in which RIAT authors can register previously unregistered trials.